ce between
themselves and the fort, and they were weary and footsore. Gus Robbins,
especially, was nearly "done up." He was in a worse condition than
Talbot was, for the latter seemed to have slept off the effects of his
wound. George felt the greatest compassion for Gus, and offered to lend
him his horse; but Bob, who had grown somewhat hardened to suffering
during his experience in the army, positively forbade it.

"It wouldn't do, George," said he, looking admiringly at his friend's
sleek, well-conditioned animal, which was constantly champing his bit
and tossing his head as if he were growing impatient at the slow
progress they were making. "Gus would make a break for liberty sure, and
as that nag of yours is able to distance anything in my party, I'd have
to--" Here Bob tapped his carbine significantly. "That's something I
don't want to do. Gus isn't so nearly exhausted as he seems to be. He
is more distressed in mind than he is in body, for he is thinking of the
prison at Fort Leavenworth. After we have gone a few miles we will rest
them by taking them up behind us, but it wouldn't be a very bright trick
to give one of them a horse to himself."

About eleven o'clock a halt was ordered, and the deserters, who were
riding behind the troopers, having dismounted, Corporal Owens took Carey
off on one side and gave him some very emphatic instructions. Then he
and George also dismounted, and, leaving their horses behind, made their
way cautiously toward a ridge a short distance in advance of them. As
they neared the top they threw themselves on their hands and knees and
crept up until they could look over it. They were in plain view of the
squatter's cabin at which the troopers had stopped to eat their dinner
the day before. Bob took just one look at it, and then hastily backed
down the ridge again.

"Did you see that fellow chopping wood in front of the shanty?" said he,
addressing himself to George. "That's the man I am looking for."

"Are you sure?"

"Am I sure that I have a pair of good eyes?" asked Bob in reply. "Of
course I am. I recognized him in spite of his citizen's clothes. That
squatter has rigged him out in some of his own duds, but they'll not
save him if I can manage in some way to get between him and the cabin."

"Perhaps, in order to make 'assurance doubly sure,' you had better take
my field-glass and have another look at him," said George. "A false move
might prove fatal to you, for it would show